Switzerland is an international hotspot where its highly educated citizens all speak at least 2 languages, it has a vibrant healthcare system that is more (efficient and capitalist than the USA's or Australia's), low crime,Very strong banking and finance sector, high standard of living and a variety of other benefits.

Don't hate the best, be the best. Maybe our Nations should try to emulate hiding the Wealth of foreign despots.

I am not offending; just wanted to ask this question: To be born in Greece, China, Peru or Cuba is better than to be born in Turkey? (Yes, I am looking like 'the skeptical African boy' while asking this question). My answer would be 'of course, no!'

I Wonder how this Nations re ranked..it's a very funny list, Luzembourg wasn't a part of it...Are they trying to say it's better to be born in Italy than in the UK or Japan :D or Chile better off than Japan and Britain. pls can some one tell me how these Nation's was scored!!!

Japan might be rich, but it's a pretty miserable place in terms of work and freedom of choice. If I'm not mistaken, they have the highest or second-highest suicide rate in the world.
Couldn't really explain Britain's low ranking to you though...

If you talking about miserable or suicide rate have you ever consider Switzerland they've got the highest suicide rate in the world, life is as well miserable there I lived in Zurich, Basel, St Galen And I know Swiss pple aren't the happiest pple in the world.

This list is sobering. It is my duty as a Young American to make sure that the USA is at the top of this list by the time I am 50. I am 18 now and I want to go into politics in order to change this. The Nationalistic fire in my stomach cannot be ignored for much longer, I must do something.

Who's demeaning them? "Welfare state" is perfectly appropriate nomenclature. In any event, it isn't as hard to create a relatively efficient welfare state when you have only five million people (the U.S. has a population 60 times as big). Comparing Denmark (or Sweden and Norway) to the U.S. is like comparing apples and (forget oranges) pineapples. And no, it isn't all peaches and cream in the Nordic countries.

It seems that the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) don't fare well on the graph. Hehe...
Unless, of course, you are going to be the son of an insider. Still, even insider's sons go
abroad to "Study"

Despite the propaganda about "Fiscal Cliff", the U.S. is still the country of possibilities.
I like that Taiwan is right up there on number 14. A tiny island with hard working &
great people. It deserves to be recognized as a country it already is.

May people around the world finally open their eyes that the BRICs were a fad just
as much as failed fad diets. Brazil grew 7.5% in 2010, and its current growth is less
than 1%. Both Russia and Brazil may look like powerhouses on paper, and to the
naive & awestruck it seems that way. However, both countries are ruled by greedy
and corrupt folks who still have no desire to really educate and enpower the masses
to have a better life like Taiwan, Singapore, and Israel. Both Brazil and Russia severely
discourage entrepreneurship (specially if it is outside the inner circle, and done by
the common folks they consider inferior to them).

May the U.S. start on the road to recovery in 2013
May Taiwan become a full fledge country
May Europe recover as well.
May the BRICs be just a market to sell goods, and not the rulers of the world. We
don't need Stalin, Vargas, Mao, and the Raj ressurected telling us what to do.

Does it matter whether one is born male or female? I can't imagine Saudi Arabia ranking so high for females. Either way, better to be born into a filthy rich family in Russia or Nigeria than a dirt poor family in Denmark or Germany--even with the existing but threatened welfare systems in these countries. The global elite increasingly seem to get what they want.

Who did you survey in the US? The 47% or the remaining 53%? The 1% or the remaning 99%? The non-hispanic whites or the hispanics? The minorities or the minority majorities? The illegals or the legals? The rural or the urban or the suburban? The 80% employed or the 20% unemployed? The 7.8% "counted" as unemployed or the remaining 12% not counted? The 50% college grads who are unemployed or underemployed or the other 50%? The gun lovers or the gun haters?

No one would brag about the quality of life in Russia right now. The average age at death has been dropping steadily, the fertility rate is way below the replacement level, and alcoholism is epidemic. Russians themselves have nothing good to say about the place, and those who can, leave.

By contrast, Indonesia has improved living conditions for its people by an order of magnitude in the last decade. The country has managed to keep a lid on Islamic fundamentalism, the economy is booming, and the Indonesian people are enthusiastic about the future.

India has improved a lot economically, has a technology sector of first-world standards, and is perhaps the most entrepreneurial nation in the world. Bureaucracy and corruption are what keeps the country from surging ahead. If they can cure that, watch out, world.

Yes but we are not allowed to upset them until all the oils gone,pass it on,they can do Al Khobar Towers send 19 hijakers etc etc if we are to believe the9/11 report and still discriminate against half of humanity.

Iceland has a population of about 320,000 . . .
Luxembourg and the Bahamas aren't on there either. Scoring such small countries would be terribly misleading.
It's bad enough that the U.S. is behind Switzerland and dinky Scandinavia; totally unfair comparison.
I'm sure the Pitcairn Islands would be a better place to be born than Angola.

Yikes. Unfair that the US is behind Switzerland and these "dinky" Scandiavian countries? How US-centric can anybody be. The US is hardly the answer to the world's problems. And you're confusing size with class.

How would it be easier for smaller countries to support their population?

How does a smaller economy have an easier time to survive larger collapses?
How do "dinky" countries have an easier time to survive in the global economy?
How do companies in and from these "dinky" countries survive?

You seem to believe that countries and their economics don't scale well?

Why would "dinky" countries have an easier time to top these lists than larger ones?
Do you think a smaller economy makes it easier to create new jobs and have less unemployment?
Wouldn't it be the direct opposite as smaller economies have less growing space for companies?

No, The plain fact is that Denmark, Switzerland and so on are, if you look at these 11 indicators much better countries to live in than the US.

In some aspects the US might be better, but not these. If you can find some other objective viewpoints in which the US is better, please add these to the discussion instead of saying "Oh, it's a dinky country, they have it much easier to support their population".

If you'd break this up in the different states of the US, would that be better from your point of view? How do you think that the states would rank?

Are you suggesting that Switzerland would still be number one if it had a population of over 300 million or that the Nordic countries would be ranked as high with a population of over 300 million? If yes, then you are suspending disbelief. If no, then their being "dinky" is certainly a large factor in their success.